Two rabbis will avoid jail time after reaching a plea deal last week for their roles in a 2021 fire at a New York assisted living facility that killed a 79-year-old resident and a firefighter.
Rabbi Nathaniel Sommer pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to five years of probation for the fire at Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley, NY. His son, Aaron Sommer, pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Both Nathaniel and Aaron Sommer admitted to recklessly using an illegal blow torch to clean the facility’s kitchen as part of a pre-Passover practice. This action was alleged by Rockland County District Attorney Thomas E. Walsh to have caused the March 23, 2021, fire and partial roof collapse that destroyed the former 200-bed complex.
Four others, including Spring Valley Building Department head Wayne Ballard and Chief Inspector Raymond Canario, as well as former Evergreen Executive Director Denise Kerr and employee Emmanuel Lema, also were charged in November 2021 for playing roles in the fire. All four pleaded not guilty.
Evergreen Court resident Oliver Hueston and volunteer firefighter Jared Lloyd were killed in the blaze.
Lloyd’s mother, Sabrail Davenport, lambasted their probation sentences. “This is not justice,” she told NBC New York. “How could this happen? How could they get no jail time?”
In September, Davenport filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Nathaniel and Aaaron Sommer as well as Ballard, Canario, Kerr and Lema. Davenport also sued Evergreen Court’s owners, the Schonberger family.
The Firefighters Association of the State of New York also criticized the ruling.
“Society must send a strong message that irresponsible and illegal behavior will not be tolerated. Laws, fire safety standards, and building codes exist to protect citizens and first responders alike,” the group’s president, Edward Tase Jr., said in a statement. “A plea deal will send a chilling message to all first responders that their selfless service can be bargained away in pursuit of an expeditious legal process for wrongdoers.”
The Sommers originally were indicted on multiple felony charges, including second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, fourth-degree arson, second-degree reckless endangerment and three assaults, according to the Rockland / Westchester Journal News and other media accounts.
They will be sentenced Sept. 20.
